A Devil of a Whipping by Lawrence E. Babits

Author:Lawrence E. Babits
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2017-04-17T04:00:00+00:00

Note: British Legion and light infantry frontage reduced by 25%, 7th Regiment frontage reduced by 20% in allowance for casualties at militia line.

MAP 19.Cavalry Movements in the Counterattack

Tarleton and his officers went to extreme lengths to rally their men. George Hanger responded to charges that Tarleton failed by noting, “exertions were used, and most vigorous ones, to enforce obedience to the orders . . . some officers went so far as to cut down several of their men, in order to stop the flight.” “In this last stage of defeat Lieutenant-colonel Tarleton made another struggle to bring his cavalry to the charge. The weight of such an attack might yet retrieve the day . . . but all attempts to restore order, recollection, or courage, proved fruitless. Above two hundred dragoons forsook their leader, and left the field of battle.” The British Legion dragoons rode off to fight another day.32

To rally his dragoons, Tarleton went down the road, perhaps 200 yards ahead of the Americans swarming around the artillery. He was well to the rear when he commenced a last attempt to win the battle. “Fourteen officers and forty horsemen were, however, not unmindful of their own reputation, or the situation of their commanding officer. Colonel Washington’s cavalry were charged, and driven back into the continental infantry by this handful of brave men.”33

Some British dragoons advanced and tried to save the cannon, but Washington’s troopers came between Tarleton and the American infantry. “The affair in this quarter now became very animated.”34 Too few of Tarleton’s men got into action. “Tarleton says that 14 officers & 40 men charged Washington’s horse and drove them back into the continental infantry. . . . This is not correct. This affair checked Washington’s pursuit, but he did not fall back.”35 Whether Washington fell back or not, British dragoons reached the American infantry. Continentals reported being wounded by British dragoons, and the only encounter between them came when Tarleton charged into the melee around the guns. This encounter was the worse part of the battle for the American cavalry. South Carolina dragoon James Simons claimed “It was at this period of the Action that we sustained the greatest loss of Men.”36 James Busby, “wounded in the Neck by a Sword from a British horseman while he was in a charge under Col Washington,” was probably hurt at this time.37

At least one British Legion dragoon was a former Delaware Continental. Michael Dougherty “should have escaped unhurt, had not a dragoon of Washington’s added a scratch or two to the account already scored on my unfortunate carcass.” He was in Captain Nathaniel Vernon’s troop and reported as a prisoner in the 23 February 1781 muster roll. Since Dougherty was wounded by one of Washington’s men, he must have been involved in this last-ditch attack because Vernon’s British Legion troop did not encounter Americans anywhere else.38

The British response was too little and too late, and the Americans could not be overcome. “Tarleton prudently commanded a retreat. Being of

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